The Global Citizens English Project

Let's reflect on some of the highlights 🤩

For a Content Rich Language Learning (CRLL) experience, our classes cover a range of topics, based on the calendar of international celebration days. Some of our all-time favourites are World Tourism Day, World Animal Day, World Food Day, World Children´s Day, World Day of Social Justice, Mental Health Awareness week, Earth Day, Random Acts of Kindness Day, World Water Day, International Day of Forests, International Day of Happiness, World Ocean Day, Fashion Revolution week, Fairtrade Fortnight, Refugees week, International Day of Street Children and more, depending on students' interests!

Have you read Abril's (Grade 11) beautiful story book about a young boy called Aarav who lives on a railway line in India? You will surely learn some interesting facts and figures too! https://padlet.com/info4476/the-global-citizens-english-project-hear-our-voices-iew49xeb9ymcyo8i/wish/wKmOZ5JjNOoeWzMA . Or perhaps you would like to hear Ian and Pia's radio chat (Grades 7 & 8) to learn about New Year traditions around the world? Here it is! https://padlet.com/info4476/the-global-citizens-english-project-hear-our-voices-iew49xeb9ymcyo8i/wish/lkDVaK88onXAQPp9

In October we had a record number of 14 students participating in the Climate Action Project with 6 champion presenters at the global collaboration meeting!

While Andres shared his findings from his family interviews, Marc, Joel and Marti taught others about the environmental, economic and social impacts of coltan mining, how it is connected to our mobile phones and about the Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots 'Movilizate por la Selva' campaign. Then Maryam and Dunia entertained us all with a touch of humour, as actors in their self-created video on how climate change is affecting Spain😍

Congratulations to everyone, the rest of the team included, for all your brilliant contributions that were much appreciated by many students and teachers around the globe 👍

In December, we took part in the Lego Build The Change Challenge. Now we have found out who the keen Lego fans are and uncovered some real talent in The Global Citizens English Project community!

One of the amazing creations that the students contributed was by Guillem, grade 7. This is his special machine for mini mission 3 which was to build an idea that removes CO2 from the air or avoids CO2 being emitted. "My machine is a hoop that when you get the shoot right the machine will take carbon dioxide and it will transform it to oxygen." We love it 👏 Have you seen the Lego gallery of children´s amazing ideas to better the planet?

In January we went on to join the annual Goals Project! Having participated in Teams SDG5, Gender Equality, SDG 15, Life on Land and SDG 4, Quality Education, in previous years, this time we joined Team SDG6, Clean Water and Sanitation. We set out to find out more about where our water comes from, the importance of keeping it clean and what we can do to help.....

Here you can see Maryam, Dunia, Marc, Abril and their dedicated families taking action by cleaning up the beach at the mouth of the River Llobregat. What a great team! 💚

We all agreed that despite the hard work, this was certainly a fun, relaxing and educational day out for all the family, together with the local community, organised and led by Consorci Delta Llobregat / Ajuntament del Prat de Llobregat. You can find out more details in Mariam and Dunia's super infographic here: https://padlet.com/info4476/the-global-citizens-english-project-hear-our-voices-iew49xeb9ymcyo8i/wish/AL83WzL2jLq4Q0Pg

In March we were offered the unique opportunity to participate in an AI in education project, the first of it´s kind, led by Branka Ranisavljevic of Serbia, a mathematics and computer science teacher and Global Teacher Award winner. She says. "The main goal of the project was to use AI in education, see possibilities and positive aspects of AI, such as the development of informatic abilities and literacy, as well as the level of creativity and imagination using the latest modern ICT tools in education." The project was based on SDGs 4 (Quality Education), 11 (Sustainable CIties & Communities), 13 (Climate Action) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

Carla, grade 9, especially enjoyed participating in the Magical World Project..... writing and editing prompts to create stories and pictures using AI, discussing her creative ideas and making written contributions on collaborative platforms with the participants from other countries. Here's what she says about her experience: "I really liked this project, because I believe that everything that includes creativity and imagination is great. I also like the fact that I´ve been able to see other students work, and they inspired me to do mine. Finally, one of the things I liked most is learning how to use AI and seeing what it can do."

Here you can find a collection of some pictures, stories, poems and songs that students contributed from different countries in the Magical World e-book

Coding and gaming are proving to be real winners for the EFL classroom!

In April, the Coding for Climate project was launched, calling for creativity in finding solutions, through coding and gaming, for the Oceans, Water, Energy and Land leagues. We were keen to take up the opportunity to join with our 3 champion teams: Pol and Guillem (Grade 7) on Scratch, Marc, Marti and Joel (Grade 8) on Minecraft, Biel and Alex (Grade 9) on Lego Fortnite...

The students very much enjoyed using these tools for learning English and while they were learning real-world content as well as language, they recognised that gaming in the classrom also helps them to develop their creativity, communication, collaboration, decision-making and problem-solving skills.

Here is the game that Pol and Guillem created to raise awareness about the importance of clean water. You can check out the videos of our coding for climate creations here: https://padlet.com/info4476/coding4climate-2024-ab0xe5vuw0nvynlf

This year there is also the option to sign up for 🎮CLASS CHAMPION GAMER🎮 which combines the 'CLASS CHAMPION' program with GAMING FOR SOCIAL GOOD. As a passionate gamer, you might already be dreaming of a future job that combines your passion with your skills and English... Surely you won't be the only one! In this program, while doing all the school revision you need, you will also learn how to be a game designer, according to New York experts in developing games for social good. First, you will work on the different steps of the game creation process, develop theories, test them, and get feedback from other players. Then you will create your own game on a platform of your choice based on a topic that matters to you. To celebrate, you will have the opportunity to participate in an important global competition sharing your ideas with other students around the world and maybe even win a prize! 🥇Throughout the course, you will also learn how AI is an effective tool to help you both create games and learn English. And as long as time allows, we won't forget to visit escape rooms, another curious tool for learning English! In case you might be interested in this exciting Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) adventure that combines computer science with English, while doing all the revision you need to be well prepared for your exams at school, stay tuned for more information coming soon 😎

At the end of the academic year, July was also a busy month sharing these valuable learning experiences with dedicated EFL and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) teachers of the Catalan Department of Education. A big thankyou goes out to all my students who are evidently key players in my creation and implementation of professional development courses like 'The SDGs in CLIL instruction' this summer. Teachers from primary and secondary schools around Catalunya learnt about the importance of SDGs in education and how to integrate them into the English language curriculum.

They went away with plenty of new tools, strategies and resources, well-prepared for working with the SDGs this new academic year ahead. They learnt about how to Teach SDGs through play, games, arts & crafts, videos, story books and nature (NatCLIL) and how to take action for a better world through service-learning, global collaboration projects and Project-based Learning (PBL) for the SDGs...

By sharing our experiences at The Global Citizens English Project with teachers in different schools and academies, we can help the global goals reach many more students, families and communities and together we will surely have a stronger impact on making the world a better place. Thank you all so much, students, parents and friends of the Global Citizens English project for your year-round participation 🤗

Contact: Deborah Williams, EFL/CLIL Teacher & Teacher Educator #TeachSDGs Ambassador

Email: info@globalcitizensenglish.com
Website: https://www.globalcitizensenglish.com
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Phone: 618018472
Twitter: @CLIL4SDGs